The present invention relates to tubular medical devices and more particularly to making a tube sump simultaneously with integral clips where the clips connect the tube sump to another tube.
A patient presents to a medical practitioner with any of a host of symptoms or conditions. Generally the practitioner checks for life threatening symptoms or conditions and then shifts patient intake to more chronic ailments. Life threatening conditions generally affect the airway, breathing, or circulation. Circulation conditions receive various cardiac treatments. Airway and breathing conditions call for measures to restore or to improve the air flow into the respiratory system, usually through the trachea. In the setting of respiratory failure, an artificial airway in the form of a tube may be inserted into the patient's pharynx and then the trachea. The tube can then provide air flow to the lungs under their own power or upon a ventilator. Beyond respiratory conditions, tubes also see usage in treating digestive conditions where a component of the digestive tract requires a supported reopening. Tubes used for respiratory or digestive conditions remain open and allow for air or digestive matter to pass through. However, tubes at times provide an eddy at their ends where infection vectors or digestive matter may collect. Such vectors and matter lead to infections that require additional care.
A tube sump has been developed and connects to ventilation, tracheal, and endotracheal tubes among others. The tube sumps have a flexible, elongated, hollow main body and then a plurality of separate clips or clamps attached to the main body. The hollow main body allows for suction to drain any infection vectors or digestive matter that accumulates at the end of a tube within a patient. Prior art tube sumps generally have a multiple step manufacturing process that mates a catheter like component to separate clip structures. The clips and catheter component attach using various methods known to the art. However, these methods of manufacture called for separate pieces subject to engineering and manufacturing, and a strong and durable attachment of the clips to the suction catheter while yielding a somewhat wide profile tube sump that encountered a more difficult passage through the upper airway of patients.
Various manufacturing methods have produced bundled tubes, or lumens, for many applications. The present invention though focuses upon a two lumen extrusion that meets the narrow profile required for placement into a patient's natural airway. The two lumen extrusion can then be modified to have clips thereon for grasping an adjacent tube, such as an artificial airway. Medical device manufacturers have shown some interest in further tube sump developments, such as Zeus Industrial Products, Inc., of Orangeburg, S.C.